Class‐size and Learning: the Tennessee experiment — what follows?

Abstract

The exceptionally large ‘Tennessee experiment’ — involving 7000 pupils — to elucidate the effects of class‐size on primary school pupils’ rate of learning has been widely interpreted as showing convincingly that classes of 15 pupils learn more rapidly, in an important sense, than classes of 24 pupils. The present re‐analysis in terms of value‐added in learning — the annual increase in SAT scores (rather than the absolute levels of those scores) — indicates that the benefits to average children resulting simply from a lowering of class‐size, while positive, are negligible in magnitude and not justifiable in relation to the additional economic resources required. The paper suggests that benefits are more likely to result from targeting additional resources to improved teaching styles, improved teaching materials and providing small classes for pupils with recognised learning difficulties; further research on class‐size needs to concentrate on the correct proportion of low‐attaining pupils that would benefit from attending small classes, the optimal size of such classes, and the fractions of the day which pupils with varying difficulties should attend small and normal‐sized classes.